Google Fiber will be in San Antonio ‘soon,’ eliminates TV services

This undated photo made available by Google shows the campus-network room at a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Routers and switches allow Google's data centers to talk to each other. The fiber cables run along the yellow cable trays near the ceiling. (AP Photo/Google, Connie Zhou) less

This undated photo made available by Google shows the campus-network room at a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Routers and switches allow Google's data centers to talk to each other. The fiber cables run ... more

Photo: Connie Zhou, HOEP / Associated Press

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Mayor Ivy Taylor announces the Google Fiber launch during a press conference held Aug. 5, 2015 at Geekdom. It has now arrived, though the city and company are mum on the next area served.

Mayor Ivy Taylor announces the Google Fiber launch during a press conference held Aug. 5, 2015 at Geekdom. It has now arrived, though the city and company are mum on the next area served.

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Google Fiber will be in San Antonio ‘soon,’ eliminates TV services

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Google Fiber announced won't be offering separate television services when it begins servicing San Antonio and Louisville.

“When we begin serving customers in Louisville and San Antonio, we’ll focus on providing superfast Internet — and the endless content possibilities that creates — without the traditional TV add on,” Google’s Cathy Fogler said in a blog post Wednesday.

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But while Google Fiber isn’t planning to offer TV to San Antonio, the company said its “superfast” internet “will be there soon.”

“We're hard at work on our Fiber network in San Antonio, and are getting closer every day to opening service to our initial customers in the city,” a Google Fiber spokesperson said via email. “We'll have full details of our product line-up at that time.”

More and more people are moving away from traditional television watching, Fogler said in the post, emphasizing streaming options available for watching TV such as YouTube TV, Hulu and Netflix.

“Google Fiber’s superfast Internet allows customers to make the most of all these streaming choices by providing the bandwidth to use multiple devices and apps at the same time,” Fogler said. “So you can catch every minute of the big game at the same time you’re playing that online multiplayer game, or stream a new movie while editing and uploading your home videos.”

In Google Fiber’s existing markets that have a TV product, “more and more” customers are choosing an internet-only offering from Google Fiber, Fogler said.

“We’ve seen this over and over again in our Fiber cities,” Fogler said.

In Austin, which already has Google Fiber, it costs $50 a month for Fiber 100, and $70 a month for Fiber 1000, according its website. Getting Fiber 100 with TV ratchets the user up to $140 a month, and residents pay $160 a month for Fiber 1000 with TV.

Both internet with TV packages come with more than 220 channels, “and a DVR that records up to 8 shows at once,” according to the Fiber website.

It’s unclear for now what offerings at what pricing will be available when Fiber eventually comes to San Antonio.

Earlier this year the Express-News reported that Google is significantly reducing the number of “fiber huts” needed to house its infrastructure and would remove one of the controversial structures that upset residents in San Antonio. Google Fiber has reportedly faced some challenges in San Antonio typical of major infrastructure projects, one of its executives told the Express-News in April.

Competitors are already touting super fast service in San Antonio. AT&T announced in August its fiber network, and its “ultra-fast” gigabit AT&T Internet 1000, was available in new locations in San Antonio.

AT&T said then its gigabit internet connection is now available to more than 230,000 homes, apartments and small businesses in the San Antonio area, up by more than 30,000 locations from its previously-reported number.

Grande Communications also offers gigabit internet service in San Antonio.

In response to reports last year that Google Fiber’s overall plans across the country had faced some stumbling blocks, an AT&T executive wrote in an August blog post: “Welcome to the broadband network business, Google Fiber. We’ll be watching your next move from our rear view mirror. Oh, and pardon our dust.”